Bad application of Opti-coat?

It's hard to tell by the picture, but it looks like very heavy paint overspray--like you drove on a road or under a bridge while it was being painted.

If that's what it is, it's easily fixable.

Nothing to do with Opticoat. Mine has the exact same white specs all over the front. It's basically tiny chips in the top coating from getting literally "sandblasted" aka driving behind a truck kicking up dirt at high speeds or through sandy construction zones.

Fyi this is why we have coatings and paint protection. These chips are in the protection coatings and not in the underlying paint clear coat itself. It would need to get polished out again and another protection coating applied. These coatings aren't permanent. Probably need them every year or every two years.

Here's what mine looked like (and yes that's an XPEL wrap line on the mirror):

Opti-coat is a lot harder than clear coat and will not swirl anywhere near as easily. I see a lot of swirls in your paint so that alone leads me to believe you didn't have opti-coat applied. If the water doesn't completely bead off then and the dirt doesn't literally just shed away when you hit it with a pressure washer, then you didn't have it applied.

That said, opti-coat won't prevent damage from sandblasting road debris.

My Opticoat guy told me specifically that Opticoat will *not* protect from swirls from washing, etc, so never take it to a non-touchless car wash.

yobigd20 said:

Nothing to do with Opticoat. Mine has the exact same white specs all over the front. It's basically tiny chips in the top coating from getting literally "sandblasted" aka driving behind a truck kicking up dirt at high speeds or through sandy construction zones.

Fyi this is why we have coatings and paint protection. These chips are in the protection coatings and not in the underlying paint clear coat itself. It would need to get polished out again and another protection coating applied. These coatings aren't permanent. Probably need them every year or every two years.

Here's what mine looked like (and yes that's an XPEL wrap line on the mirror):

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No coating, as it relates to products such as Opti-coat or nano products, will protect you against rock chips. A coating is 5 microns at best...where something like XPEL, around 180 microns, will prevent the smaller, peppering, rock chips. Those little chips in your paint, and the OP's paint, if in fact that's what they are, will not polish out. You physically have chips in the clear that would need a repaint. You can however, "minimize" that effect with a proper polishing.

Can you feel the flecks with your finger? As weird as it sounds, sometimes it's easier if you shove your hand in a Ziplock sandwich bag and gently rub the area (after a wash when it's clean, of course). If you can feel bumps, it's likely a bunch of little chips, as noted above, or some kind of paint.

The thing that makes me a bit suspicious is the white on the nosecone. Sure it could be reflection from the sun, but it's pretty consistent. The nosecone is black molded plastic, so no amount of chipping would turn it white. I have a few chips on my nosecone, but they're just black divots where it used to be smooth.

Oh my! Thank goodness I live in CA and not in NE, where I grew up!. One suggestion would be to make sure they are not deposits on the paint, as opposed to chips through to the primer. BTW, the primer is grey, not white. I agree completely with Gizmotoy. The nosecone will not show as white with chips, since it is black all the way through. I can confirm that after just polishing out two deeeeep scratches, for which I had to go very deep to correct them. Made me nervous, actually, but it worked. Try a decontamination such as Iron-X or clay the car prior to doing any sort of polishing or recoating. That may well help. If you have been sand or salt blasted and they are actual micro chips in the paint, then your options are few. Polishing (after decon) will help. But it will not solve the problem. My hope is that they are actually on top of the paint and can be removed. Use great care when trying to remove them if they are salt deposits, as they are very abrasive and must be removed properly to avoid further damaging the paint.

Cerie said:

No, you cannot feel any flecks with your finger nor is there any resistance if you gently "pick" at it with your fingernail. The white on the nosecone is definitely not a reflection from the sun as it's consistently spotted like that throughout the entire thing.

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Surface contamination would be kind of raised a bit, so the former part of this comment seems to rule out white paint or salt. But the latter part supports such a conclusion. Sounds like it's probably time to visit a detailer. Certainly there's no reason your nosecone should be white though as it's made entirely of black plastic, so that alone makes me think someone in front of you drove over a freshly-painted white line and kicked paint onto your car.

OP, those look like tiny rock chips/impacts.

MoeMistry said:

No coating, as it relates to products such as Opti-coat or nano products, will protect you against rock chips. A coating is 5 microns at best...where something like XPEL, around 180 microns, will prevent the smaller, peppering, rock chips. Those little chips in your paint, and the OP's paint, if in fact that's what they are, will not polish out. You physically have chips in the clear that would need a repaint. You can however, "minimize" that effect with a proper polishing.

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Actually mine are in the XPEL wrap. Every pic of mine is wrapped. You can see the lines. So "chips" will occur in wraps too, even XPEL. The positive thing about a wrap is that It can be pulled off and replaced bc the paint underneath is still perfect.

I had the the same thing happen to an Infiniti I used to have... Those are rock chips, and are not going to buff out, only way to fix damage like that is to repaint.
I got behind dump truck that was hauling gravel, my damage looked exactly the same.
There is no coating made that will protect against stone damage other than XPEL or other brands of paint protection film.

HankLloydRight said:

My Opticoat guy told me specifically that Opticoat will *not* protect from swirls from washing, etc, so never take it to a non-touchless car wash.

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Well, he's wrong. It will not totally prevent it but the opticoat surface is a lot more resistant to scratching so it will occur a lot less.

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Tampaukfan said:

I had the the same thing happen to an Infiniti I used to have... Those are rock chips, and are not going to buff out, only way to fix damage like that is to repaint.
I got behind dump truck that was hauling gravel, my damage looked exactly the same.
There is no coating made that will protect against stone damage other than XPEL or other brands of paint protection film.

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The might buff out. You cannot tell from the photo if they are through the clear coat or just on the very surface. I've had stuff that looked worse that was correctable with very little material removed and other stuff that didn't look as bad but it was all the way through the clear coat.

Get a bottle of liquid rubbing compound like like Meguiar's Step 1 or 3m rubbing compound(do not use a paste rubbing compound), get a microfiber towl, and polish a small area with it. You will see very quickly if it's just in the bare surface of the clear coat or if it's much deeper. The more you have to work at it, the deeper it is. With the products I mentioned, would take you an hour rubbing on the same spot to go all the way through the clear cloat.